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October 1, 2017

HC quashes externment order, allows man back into city

<!– /11440465/Dna_Article_Middle_300x250_BTF –>The Delhi High Court set aside the externment order passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, East district, and later upheld by the then Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of Delhi, against a person who had been externed from the limits of the NCT – National Capital Territory – for two years. The court held that the accused posed no hazard to the safety of the community.”This Court is of the opinion that there was no sufficient reason to believe the petitioner is so desperate and dangerous that his presence in NCT or any part thereof would be hazardous to the community and its safety. Both the orders referred to above, suffer from the vice of non application of mind…” Justice Ashutosh Kumar said.The court’s direction came on a plea filed by one Surender alias Chhinda where he had challenged the order of the ACP, Gandhi Nagar following an externment request of the Station House of the Geeta Colony.The ACP had moved the proposal for externment alleging that the materials on record revealed that there were reasonable grounds to believe the petitioner was engaged in various offences punishable under the IPC, Arms Act, Gambling Act and Delhi Police Act.He also claimed that the movements and acts of the petitioner were “calculated to cause alarm, danger and harm to person and property and his presence in Delhi or any part thereof is hazardous to the community.”The proposal for externment also included the fact that witnesses are not willing to come forward to depose against the petitioner because of the fear of reprisal.However, the petitioner Surender denied all the allegations and said that no case has been registered against him after 2014 and he has been falsely implicated in the earlier cases.While setting aside the order, the court observed that an externment order brings in societal and personal deprivation and is a great blow on the finances of the externee.WHAT IS EXTERNMENT?It is an order passed against a person, or a group of persons when one has reasonable suspicion that their presence could cause danger in the area. Such person/bodies of persons are ordered to remove themselves from the area